This weekend I finely 90% finished my floor layout. I know this is no where near what most of you out there have built. Since I don't have a basement I used my bonus room (21 ft long, 15 Ft wide). The whole point was to keep it simple and create a winter theme. I used 1inch boards as my base, put the bathroom mats down Rewired power leads to the track, replaced most of the O72 curves with O84. I started the station side last Dec ( prior to that it was just a layout on a Carpet)and had been slowly expanding from there. This weekend was the big push as I realigned the yard, laid the rest of the mats and wood, redid the wiring. Most of the wiring is under the mats. The Santa snow works real good but you need to wipe it off right away from the rails. After it dries wipe the rails again with a scotch pad to remove the remaining residue.
The yard was built with a cork board base with five sidings with carpet padding to transition from the 1 inch boards used on the main line. This allowed the yard to sit about 1 inch below the main line.
The tracks and buildings received a coat of Santa snow. this allowed the tracks to blend in and look like it had been snowing.
I running 16 gauge wire as a loop from my junction box. From the loop I have:
17 power leads into the track. Might be over kill but I am running mixed of conventional and command(DCS and TMCC)
2 power leads in the crossings
5 power leads to the sidings running through light switches
Separate loop for from the 12v on the Z4000 to power the signals( by Z stuff for trains), Train station ( Kit Bash), and current buildings.
Materials used:
compressed 1 in wood
other 1 in boards
Artic white bathroom mates from Walmart( 25)
Fast Track
Santa Snow
Cork Board
Things left to do. Hang flat screen TV on the wall with shelf for the cable, DVD Player, and sound system. Then I can remove the stand and open up for viewing purposes the side where my station is and add a back ground at track level. find a couch that allows better view of the layout. add some dept 56 type buildings ( Mr Miller planted that seed from the Dept 56 thread) and more trees and shrubbery. Finish the river crossing. Who says it doesn't snow in Tampa! Tell me what you think.
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on my face. Thank You.